The invention relates to golf clubs and particularly to titanium face plates in golf club heads.
Golf clubs have been in existence for many years. People have constantly attempted to improve the distance a golf ball will travel after striking. Many different materials of different degrees of hardness and therefore different degrees of compressibility upon impact with a golf ball, have been used.
The most common inserts in the market today include epoxy, cycolac, graphite, phenolic, glass, fiber and aluminum. In tests performed comparing all these inserts, it was determined that all the inserts performed essentially the same.
Many different patents have issued describing different golf club inserts. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,834,700 and 3,367,228 describe face plates having a high modulus of elasticity. One such face plate mentioned is titanium and carbides of titanium.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,846,228 refers to iron type golf clubs. In that patent, reference is made to titanium due to its low specific gravity.
Other patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,589,363; 1,592,463; 3,212,783; 3,368,812; 3,989,248; and 4,181,306 refer to different type inserts, including aluminum, steel, bronze, plastic and sodium-aluminum salicate. Each different type insert is described for its own specific properties, such as a light metal alloy or having a high yield strength.
A reading of the prior patents or an intensive review of all golf clubs presently marketed, fails to disclose a golf club head having a titanium insert in its striking surface wherein said insert also has a recess in its rear portion.
Factors which control the distance a golf club travels include the hardness of the striking surface and the flexibility of the striking surface. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to fabricate a face plate for a golf club of a material that possesses a great hardness factor, durability and flexibility on its striking surface.
A further object of this invention is to provide a striking surface having a face plate with a recess adjacent a rear portion of the face plate. With such a recess flexing of the face plate is toward the middle of the face plate. Also, with such a face plate, the hardness and duraability of titanium is maintained with the additional advantage that the weight of a lighter material such as plastic, fiber or aluminum is used.
Having flexing toward the middle allows for the face plate to resume its original profile after striking the golf ball. Thus, greater strength and energy are imparted to the golf ball and both the distance travelled and the trajectory are improved.
It has been found that titanium has both a high durability factor as well as a high yield strength. Accordingly, still another object of the invention is to provide a face plate having both a high durability and high yield strength.
The invention possesses other advantages which will be apparent from the following description and the drawings.